CHAPTER 5: THE SITUATION OF SMEs RELATED TO (SCIENTIFIC) KNOWLEDGE
5.3 THEMATIC ANALYSIS
5.3.7 BARRIERS TO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
5.3.7.1 Barriers related to the awareness around scientific knowledge
a specific type of product. Figure 5.9 shows the barriers mentioned by the re-spondents.
Figure 5.9. Barriers to scientific knowledge
As I will show in the following, several of the barriers from this figure are in-terrelated. One group of barriers can be said to relate to the ‘awareness’
around scientific knowledge, another to the ‘form’ of scientific knowledge and a third to the situation of SMEs.
5.3.7.1 Barriers related to the awareness around scientific knowledge
The barrier mentioned most frequently by the respondents was ‘Ignorance’. It covered SMEs being unaware of (1) which subjects scientific knowledge en-gage in and (2) what scientific knowledge could possibly contribute to them and their work. Aggregated, this equals SMEs not knowing if scientific know-ledge is of any relevance to them. The following quotes express SMEs’ expe-riences in this regard: Not relevant to us/have no need for it Overly-long production time Only has limited influence on collaborations
n = 153 Based on 36 respondents
“I would have to know what they have to offer at universities. It is too unclear. It could be really great, but it is just confusing because the uni-versity is many things.”
Respondent 4
“I do not go and look on your website. But that is also because I do not know if there is anything relevant to me.”
Respondent 7
“But purely technically, how we can use one another? I have difficulties connecting that because they do not know my point of view and I do not know their knowledge about it.”
Respondent 18
“I do not know where to apply or what information or knowledge exists
… I guess there is a webpage.”
Respondent 26
“I think it can be difficult as an enterprise to figure out all the branch of studies out there and what they really cover and I have an idea that many of the students think that we the enterprises know, but we simply have no idea. If I ask people in my social circle what Interactive Digital Media cover then they are blank, we simply do not know.”
Respondent C
These quotes contain articulations of “I do not know”, “I guess” and “I think”.
They are articulations of uncertainty. The answers bear witness to the re-spondents simply not knowing what goes on at the universities. They do not know what knowledge exists, what the university has to offer, what branches exist, or if there even is a website. Further, they mention not going to the web-site, because they do not know if there is anything of relevance to them. This goes for VBN as well, which is articulated by one respondent:
Interviewer: “Could you imagine going to VBN, the research portal of AAU?”
Respondent: “No, I do not think I would. It is a really good idea but I do not think I would. Mostly because I have had no introduction of it. It appears a bit foreign. It seems somewhat difficult when I do not know what it does or what it can do. If someone told me what it does and what it can do, then I am pretty sure I would.”
Respondent 13
Even though this quote stands alone, it points out something central. If SMEs have had no introduction to VBN, they do not know what it can do for them.
This underlines the importance of the university promoting scientific know-ledge and the channels to SMEs, which is one of the communicative principles.
Related to this is the barrier that scientific knowledge is ‘Difficult to find/search for’, which relates to another communicative principle, that of providing.
“We cannot search for it. We do not know where to look. We do not know who to follow. We do not know when it is relevant.”
Respondent 13
“I just think it would be too heavy to find and what should you search for and how do I look around in it and so on.”
Respondent C
These quotes illustrate that SMEs have many doubts regarding the search for scientific knowledge. They do not know where to look, what to search for, how to look around in it or when it is relevant. Further, they expect it to be “too heavy to find”, which is an unfortunate combination. At the same time, while SMEs largely did not know what scientific knowledge exists or where/how to find it, they simultaneously had an immediate understanding of scientific knowledge being ‘Not relevant to us and we have no need for it’. This is prob-lematic. SMEs were not only unaware of what scientific knowledge existed, furthermore, their immediate understanding was that it is not relevant to them.
“I have not had a need for it, and I have a legislation I have to follow, and I guess research is a stage before legislation, so I have not had the need to talk to any researchers yet.”
Respondent 6
“I do not need it.” Respondent 17
“I have not found anything out there recently that has been of interest to my area, and therefore, it is just not the road I take.”
Respondent 22
“Well, offhand I maybe have a hard time seeing how it can be relevant here on my desk.”
Respondent 26
“What is really important to us is knowledge about market and strategy and knowledge about creativity. I do not know. I do not think that the university has a role to play there.”
Respondent A
As the quotes show, SMEs often immediately deem scientific knowledge non-relevant because of an immediate assessment of it not being non-relevant. This relates to the ‘Ignorance’ mentioned earlier. It is another unfortunate combination.
Accordingly, eliminating the ignorance could improve SMEs’ assessment on relevance. It relates to what I stated under the previous theme; that it is nec-essary to clearly present the possibilities and the different types of knowledge products that are available and to demonstrate how these can be used. I can now add that it is not only the types of knowledge products that must be con-cretised (which is one of the communicative principles), but also the subjects which scientific knowledge deals with. SMEs must be able to know that scien-tific knowledge engages in creativity, socio-economics, marketing and so on.
On a related note, the analysis showed that SMEs tended to think of scientific
knowledge’s relevance in relation to their primary product and not related to all these other examples and subjects. If SMEs only ever think of scientific knowledge related to the actual development of the enterprise, a lot of possi-bilities remain uncovered. Collectively, concretising and exemplifying scien-tific knowledge could allow for SMEs to be inspired and possibly increase their use of scientific knowledge. In this relation, a quote by Respondent 25 is inter-esting:
“It could be because I feel like I do not need it. But if I suddenly need it then I might consider it. It is like when you walk around in the mall not needing anything and then you find out that you do need something an-yway because you drop by something.”
Respondent 25
The comparison to the situation in the mall suggests that if scientific know-ledge is concretised, SMEs’ ignorance could be eliminated and a desire to
‘shop for scientific knowledge’ could emerge. This could be desirable, and it adds a new dimension to the existing understandings of SMEs’ use of scientific knowledge. With these conclusions, several other barriers mentioned in Figure 5.9 appear to be related, i.e. ‘Business as usual/we know best”. When the re-spondents mention that scientific knowledge is not relevant to them, there is an undertone of them thinking that the university cannot teach them anything.
This is of course an interpretation, but the following quotes support this inter-pretation:
“Well, I do not think I could find anyone who knows more about Face-book or advertising. Maybe more on the creative part. Regardless, I have not met anyone who knows as much as we do, because we sit with it every day.”
Respondent 9
“To be a bit opinionated, we actually believe that the services we deliver are ahead of existing research and what they find of interesting solutions.
Because we are handling these issues, it is hands-on.”
Respondent F
Once again, this relates to the ‘not invented here-syndrome’ (Baltes, 2000;
Bearden et al., 1995; Decter et al., 2007; Sher et al., 2011), which was ad-dressed in the Literature Study. The ‘not-invented-here-syndrome’ also influ-ences the point mentioned above about SMEs tending to think of scientific knowledge related to their primary product, and not, for example, related to how to run and optimise a business or develop staff. While SMEs can believe that they are the best at what they do, this does not necessarily apply to all areas of the business. It might particularly apply to their core development processes. But if SMEs learned that they can actually gain from scientific knowledge, both related to their core development and related to, for example,
the improvement of business processes, they would learn that they do not al-ways know best themselves and that scientific knowledge could be of value on subjects other than what they immediately think of. This would improve their assessment of relevance.
Actually, all of these barriers now analysed are closely related to the barrier about a ‘Lack of communication/exposure’, which is also frequently articu-lated by respondents and it is of great relevance to the research aim of this thesis. It is interesting that it actually turned out to be so frequently mentioned by the respondents. It proves that communication is a central part of this prob-lem area, not only to me and the thesis, but to the SMEs as well. Accordingly, the communicative principle about promotion is central.
“I am sure you are testing a lot of things that we do not always notice. I am sure a lot of interesting things are happening that could benefit us, but how do we access that knowledge that you might conduct research about and spent a lot of energy on? It is about communicating it to us who could potentially find it interesting.”
Respondent 5
“Well, I might have an idea that a lot of genius things are being made at the different universities, but that they are also sometimes just made and then go nowhere, if they do not really lift it out or somehow channel it to practice.”
Respondent 11
“But what news comes from there is not something I hear about. I do not know where to hear about it (…) I do not meet it. I do not think that the public in general, if I can talk generally, I do not think they meet it either. Where would you?”
Respondent 14
“I actually do not know if they work on that. But they surely do not communicate it.”
Respondent 15
“I am thinking about how I would access it or how it is available to me.
Because, well, it has not really been. I do not think it is something that has found me. It has not.”
Respondent 21
“I think I would need some information from you about what you specifically have to offer.”
Respondent 27
“I wish there was a more standardised way for the university to present their research results and the programs they might be working on.”
Respondent F
These quotes strongly indicate that there is a severe lack of communication from the university about its scientific knowledge. Without communication, SMEs will not experience a need for scientific knowledge. It is up to the uni-versity to clearly communicate the possibilities specifically to SMEs. Only then
will the ignorance be diminished. Only then will SMEs begin to see relevance in scientific knowledge; only then will a desire to ‘shop for scientific knowledge’
be made possible. More specifically, the university must accept that SMEs will not proactively look for scientific knowledge, and that they need the university to proactively communicate it to them. This is the essence of the communica-tion principle on promocommunica-tion. The following quotes illustrate this:
“Well, you can say that the people conducting research on something also communicate it or offer a dissemination that I would find really in-teresting. Because otherwise you would have to be actively investigative and it is difficult to actively investigate something if you do not know what it is.”
Respondent 14
“It is difficult for us to be proactive towards the university and draw knowledge out that way. It is easier if they come to us and tell us what they are doing right now, then it would be low-hanging fruit to us.”
Respondent 23
“We do not have time to look for them, I would say. But I hope they will call us. We are on board, that is our approach. If things make sense or seem fun and worth a shot, then we are in.”
Respondent E
“Maybe I should be a bit more proactive and stay updated on it, but we also have a business to run. So, if enterprises are truly to understand the universities, then it has to be made accessible and easy.”
Respondent G
Understanding the situation of SMEs, i.e. that they are under a constant time, resource and development pressure, means accepting that they will not proac-tively look for scientific knowledge, especially when they do not know what it is they are looking for. By that, all these barriers are interrelated. The univer-sity must strive to be the proactive partner in this constellation and demon-strate to SMEs what scientific knowledge is, and is about, and how it can be of value to SMEs. This analysis has shown that despite barriers, SMEs actually want to engage with the university and scientific knowledge – but they need the university to initiate it.
On a related note, the SMEs mentioned that the university comes across as a
‘closed world’ that is ‘difficult to access/contact’ to them. This is also a com-municational issue.
“It should not be too closed a world to the business world. That might be their primary, that they have to make themselves visible to the busi-ness world.”
Respondent 5
“I come with something self-taught and from different roads and my view on the university as an outsider is that it is a very closed world.”
Respondent 11
“I come from the university myself and it is my old mathematics teacher we happen to be in contact with, so there are some relations that entail us to relatively quickly and informally build some things up.”
Respondent 20
“We do not have any experience with it and we do not have a culture or what to call it, we are not used to it. The world out there where you are, it appears to be so strange and closed to us.”
Respondent 29
These quotes show that regardless of SMEs’ background (if the employees have attended university or are self-taught, or whether or not the SME has a tendency to use the university) they need the university to be open to them.
You should not have to have an “old mathematics teacher” you are still in contact with in order to be able to access scientific knowledge. All SMEs need to feel ‘invited’ to scientific knowledge. As several quotes in this entire study illustrate, a distinction between “them” and “us” is frequently articulated. It bears witness to SMEs experiencing being very separated from the university.
This experience could profitably be eliminated, which can (at least partly) be done by communicating differently and more openly inviting SMEs in. In con-clusion, SMEs need scientific knowledge to be promoted and provided (com-municative principles).
5.3.7.2 Barriers related to the characteristics of scientific